Aarica's RIU Palace Riviera Maya Review...

Our wedding was absolutely fabulous! It was the most beautiful and intimate ceremony. We were upgraded to the suite upon our arrival and the best part was the patio overlooked our the gazebo where our ceremony take place. It was amazing!!! I guess I will start off with sections to make it a little less confusing… 

*The Meeting with the Wedding Coordinators*

Cinthya was extremely nice and very accommodating. I brought some decorations with me and there is a $60 fee for them to set everything up (which is totally worth it). I brought my suitcase full of goodies to the meeting with a letter explaining what to do with everything in it, which they really appreciated. The flowers included in the package are beautiful. I think you have 4 to choose from with out paying extra. I chose the roses, and they turned out really beautiful! The meeting probably lasted about 45 minutes. When we were done I felt really good about everything which was very refreshing!

*Welcome Dinner*

We had a welcome dinner for all of our guests the day they arrived. It was at Don Manolo, the buffet. It was nice, they had the table decorated with little flowers, but nothing too spectacular. After that we all hung out at the plaza area and watched the shows and live music, which was nice!

*Wedding Ceremony 4pm*

Was gorgeous! It actually was a little cloudy and barely sprinkled during the ceremony, but I couldn’t care less. I loved it and the clouds made for some great pictures. The RIU wedding team is a lot more professional and organized with their weddings than I imagined. They had several people setting up the decorations, walkie-talkies to speak to each other back and forth, etc. I just had two bridesmaids and they walked out to a beachy song and then I walked out to Somewhere Over the Rainbow, everyone raved about the music. It was really nice because I walked straight out from my room down the aisle! The pastor was great! He seemed very sincere and sweet when talking to us. I sent the coordinators and reading for him, and he did great! We also had my husband’s grandmother read us the Hand Ceremony right before we said our vows. When it was all said and done we walked back up the aisle while people were blowing bubbles. It was so cute! I would recommend the wedding gazebo to anyone. It was so beautiful and made amazing pictures!

*Cocktail Hour 4:30pm*

We had our cocktail hour, which was really about 2 hours, at La Habana, the Lobby Bar. They section off a place for our at the back of the bar. It worked out really well. It was a good idea to have it inside considering the ceremony and the dinner would be outside. I added chips, salsa, guacamole, etc. for people to snack on during this time as well. It was good for people to go to the bar while we were taking our pictures.

*Reception Dinner 7pm*

Our reception dinner was at Chilis, the Steakhouse and was FABULOUS! We had it in the mezzanine section, which can only hold 28 people max. It was almost 100% private. It worked perfect for our reception. We brought our IPOD to play music during this time as well. They had all of my decorations set up nicely when we arrived. The food was fantastic! I had the surf and turf and it was delicious. They brought our wedding cake out, which is really small (I didn’t upgrade it) towards the end. We got the chocolate cake with chocolate filling and it tasted okay, not the best. Everyone ate the dessert that came with our dinner, so 5 people out of our group had a piece and there was over ¾ left when we were done! Good thing I didn’t upgrade it!  Overall I think Chilis is a GREAT choice for the reception dinner, especially for a small crowd. I thought the foot was so much better than the Brazilian Restaurant, as did the rest of my guests. After dinner we all jumped in the pool… yes I was in my dress… it was so much fun! The rest of the time we hung out in the plaza area until everyone went to bed.

*Photography*

AMAZING!!!!!!! We used the resort photographer, Juan Carlos Maggellon, and he was absolutely fabulous! We had him come an hour before the ceremony so we could get a lot of the pictures out of the way. He walked in and immediately got down to business. I did my research and found good shots from other weddings and the RPRM and gave them to him. I am so glad I did, it gave him an idea of how I wanted my pictures to turn out. He took pictures during the ceremony and for an hour after as well. We were leaving the resort the next day to go to our honeymoon resort, so we met him at 1pm and he had our pictures for us. We purchased the jpeg package with the photos on the CD so we have all rights to them. We took over 500 pictures during the 2.5 hours that he was with us. We had such a hard time narrowing the pictures down and ended up purchasing a larger package because they were all so good! All in all, I am extremely pleased with the resort photographer and have received wonderful compliments on how great my pictures are.

Overall I am extremely impressed with the RIU and could not have picked a better place to have my wedding. All of the guests had an amazing time and are already talking about planning a trip back next year.

Now Here are some of the Pictures....

A Few More Pics to Follow...

A Few More...

THE END!

Congratulations!!!

OMG - Im so happy for you! Glad to hear you had an amazing wedding! they are doing our reception dinner at 9 pm! That is very late!!! Im not too happy about that. The pics they have sent me about the cake aren't too nice, so would you say you would do w/o the cake if you could do it all over again?

Did they charge extra for the suite? was it the 2 floor one?

Ohhhh....I cant wait!

Great pics!

Thanks for the review, you made me feel much better about everything!

Yeah, the cake is nothing special at all! I honestly wouldn't pay to upgrade it. I brought a crystal "m" to put on top of the cake and told them not to put any of the cheesy icing flowers on it. It was basic, but fine. 9pm is kind of late for the dinner, are you having it at Botofogo? No, we had the suite on the 1st floor, but the one of the 2nd floor looked awesome. Good luck! You will have a great time!!

Aarica, Everything looks and sounds wonderful. You are a beautiful bride! Congrats.

Oh my gosh! Great review! I can't wait to get married there. I really love your pics. You look so pretty. Did you do your makeup or did the spa do it? Congrats! Desiree

Great review. I love your pictures! You looked beautiful!

thanks for all the info!! Judging by the pictures your wedding turned out great...I'm getting married at the Riu Palace Mexico resort next door & hope it'll turn out just as good:)